Origin: Kennedy, San Agustin, Huila, Colombia

Producer & Farm: Angel Ortega, Miramar ( 10 hectares, 7 with coffee)

Process: Washed

Varieties: Gesha

Altitude: 1850 masl

Importer: Semilla & Monkaaba

Roast: Light

Notes: Yellow Plum, Sprite, Black Tea, Floral

Transparency: 

• We paid Semilla 7.89 USD per pound of exportable green coffee + shipping & storage fees
• Farmgate price was $4,500,000 COP per Carga of parchment (national average was $2,900,000 COP at the time)
• FOB price was $5.96/lb.

Angel Ortega

Angel Ortega is a second-generation coffee grower, who has been cultivating coffee since his teenage years. Both Angel and his brother Augusto Ortega learned from their father, beginning with a small plot of just 700 trees. In 1985 at the young age of 24 he left his family farm and started his own plot, planting 10,000 new trees of the Colombia varietal. 

Angel's farm, Miramar, sits at 1,850 masl in the Kennedy neighbourhood of San Agustín. It’s a 10-hectare plot, with 7-hectares dedicated to coffee production. Though the early days had its struggles, it also had its benefits, with plants being healthier than they are now, without the existence of climate-related diseases like Roya.

In the year 2000, Angel joined a local coffee growers' union through which he learned about specialty coffee production. Prior to this he had primarily been selling his coffee "el verde" which is wet de-pulped coffee, sold immediately to intermediaries at reduced prices. With this coffee union, they developed a client base for their coffee in Europe, but only ever sold their coffee blended together.

Nearly 20 years later Angel achieved his first micro-lot sale in 2018, selling his coffee under his own name for the first time. Despite this he still felt disconnected from the people roasting and serving his coffee. That feeling is what brought him to the Monkaaba Bodega in San Agustin, where Semilla and Monkaaba offer him the highest prices for his coffee, and the opportunity to taste his own coffee and learn about its qualities. 

At Miramar Angel and his pickers go out to the fields and pick every 15 days, when cherries are at peak ripeness. He leaves the picked cherries overnight, and then de-pulps them into tiled tanks the next morning. They then undergo a dry fermentation for 36-40 hours before it is rinsed clean. The coffee is then moved to raised beds where it is dried for 18 to 22 days under cover.

Angel received a farmgate price of COP$4,500,000 per carga, a good price for Gesha and well over the national average of COP$2,900,000.  Thanks to Semilla and Monkaaba's dedication to paying good equitable prices for the labour involved in specialty production, producers can always expect a good and fair payment for their coffee.

This Gesha is soft and delicate, we've roasted it light to highlight the fruity and floral notes that are always present in quality Gesha. In the cup we're getting bright and bubbly Sprite, Yellow Plum, Black Tea, and lovely Florals.

Brewing Recommendations:

Pour-over: 1:16-17 ratio, we love the 15g-250ml in the Kalita wave.

Espresso: 18g-18.5g in / 37g-39g out / 27-30 seconds.

Monkaaba

Working together, Semilla and Monkaaba provide a rare opportunity for most producers. They run a free to use cupping lab in San Agustin, Huila that allows small producers to taste their own coffees and receive feedback from veteran producers on how to improve quality.

This is entirely contrary to how most other buying systems and the commodity market work, where buyers benefit from coffee producers not knowing the quality of their coffee so they can continue offering low prices and selling for higher profits.

This project is all about empowering and educating producers to reach micro-lot status, and financial stability through coffee production.

Interested in reading more about Monkaaba? Let me guide you to our lovely friends' website to read more! - https://www.semilla.ca/projects/1jq18VvLX0WoyK7hvxeeLM